REVIEW: The Mapmaker’s Daughter by Laurel Corona

A sweeping story of 1492 Spain, exploring how what we know about the world shapes our map of life

1492. During the waning decades of Spain’s golden age, Christian religious fervor culminated in the expulsion of all Jews and Muslims from the Iberian Peninsula. THE MAPMAKER’S DAUGHTER tells the story of these final years through the eyes of Amalia Cresques, the daughter of a mapmaker who has been living as a converso, hiding her Jewish faith.

As Amalia witnesses history in the making–the horrors of the Spanish Inquisition, the court of Henry the Navigator in Portugal, the fall of Muslim Granada, and the Jewish expulsion from Spain–she must decide whether to relinquish what’s left of her true self or risk her life preserving it. A mesmerizing saga about faith, family and Jewish identity.

Dear Ms. Corona,

The blurb of any historical book with a little used setting will generally catch my eye and make me stop for a second look. I know I mentioned in a recent review that sagas aren’t my “thing” and in that one I had hoped the interesting setting would overcome my reservations about it but here, it works for me. When needed, there were leaps in the narrative to branch periods when nothing of note would have happened. And since the narrator begins the book looking back over her life while at other times the present is superimposed on her memories, I was okay with her editing.

From the first page, I felt immersed in this far away world. The details of daily life in 15th century Spain, Portugal and Granada are interesting, pertinent and best of all seamlessly interwoven in the story. I didn’t get the feeling that facts were being shoehorned in just because you found them too cool not to mention. Instead they add to the “feel” and authenticity without seeming intrusive.

The central theme of the book is identity and what will we endure in order to preserve it. Amalia’s father and sisters were determined to live as conversos – former Jews who had converted to Christianity – in Sevilla while her mother was equally, if not more, determined to secretly be true to her Jewish faith in a world where anger against them could be sparked and lead to pogroms at any moment. As mentioned in the above paragraph, it’s the wealth of details about daily life in a Jewish household that centers the book and illuminates Amalia’s identity.

Amalia does go to palaces, witness certain events and is present to see firsthand many important people of her day, but I like that the strength of the story is in the women and how they make their homes and live their lives. Jewish identity is passed through the mother and the focus of the women centers on the household. The women of this family are boss and a source of rock solid steadiness for their men and children to depend on.

Obviously it’s impossible to read this book in 2014 and not think back to the events within living memory from the 1930s. As the restrictions on Jews began, I got nervous for Amalia and her extended family. When the hammer blows struck, one after another, I wanted to stand outside their households and yell, “Can’t you see what’s happening? Don’t you understand? You have to get out now.” Yet, I know from first hand sources that even as your rights are being stripped away and laws are being passed against you, people will still try and cling to what and where they know. They will believe beyond safety that things will get better.

Honestly I didn’t expect the Christians to come off looking good here. We are talking the start of the Spanish Inquisition. But I do have to admit that I was hoping for a more even handed portrayal of, at the very least, Amalia’s Christian family members. Instead her two sisters devolve into hard eyed harridans, the one sister’s children are grasping, rude little parasites while Amalia’s husband becomes a slaver and is revealed to be a homosexual. To me this takes the easy way out by making everyone evil rather than having anyone on the Christian side face a difficult decision of whether to show any love or loyalty to Amalia. The fact that all but one of the Muslim characters are shown positively made this even more glaring.

Amalia’s final decision about her grandfather’s atlas, which has been a central part of her entire life and which she’s sacrificed so much in order to keep, took me by surprise. But as I thought more about it, her choice made sense to me. Her family and her people are being thrown out of the country in which they’ve lived, and which they’ve culturally enriched, for centuries. What she does is her way of saying to them “we were here, remember us, this is what you’re losing.” B

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Another long time reader who read romance novels in her teens, then took a long break before started back again about 15 years ago. She enjoys historical romance/fiction best, likes contemporaries, action- adventure and mysteries, will read suspense if there's no TSTL characters and is currently reading very few paranormals.

Comments

I love sagas like this, and especially in settings that are a little different from the usual offerings. But I’ve read a few books lately where the Christians don’t come off so well, and I’m kind of tired of it. Admittedly, as you said, the Spanish Inquisition is one of the worst examples of abuse of power by Christians, and there were a lot of evil people doing evil things in the name of Christianity. But too often in historicals lately authors seem to be relying on lazy stereotypes of Christians, and not giving them the depth of conflict and insight that people of other faiths have. Why shouldn’t a Christian, as much as a Jew or a Muslim or anyone else, struggle with matters of faith and conscience? As an aside, it seems like every book out there is titled someone’s wife or daughter [including my own, I have to admit!] and I’d love to see a new trend in titles.

Interesting that it’s set in 1492. In light of historians’ recent theories that Christopher Columbus was secretly Jewish and undertook his famous — or infamous — voyage west to escape the Spanish Inquisition, I’m curious, does the novel touch on this possibility?

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